Beschreibung:
The impact of a 4‐weeks nutrition education program combined with an increase in the content and bioavailability of dietary iron for 22 weeks was studied in 34 intervention boarding‐school girls who suffered from mild iron deficiency anemia. Thirty‐four anemic adolescent girls from another boarding‐school not exposed to the dietary program, served as control. There were no significant differences between the two groups for iron and vitamin C intakes at baseline. Within the intervention group, dietary iron increased from baseline (18.2 ± 5.0 mg) to mid (21.6 ± 5.4 mg) and post‐intervention (23.2 ± 4.5 mg) indicating a significant time effect interaction. In the control group, dietary iron intakes decreased from baseline (17.0 ± 3.6 mg) to mid‐intervention (15.6 ± 6.8mg) but increased at the end of the study (18.3 ± 5.9 mg), although the interaction time effect was not significant. A significant group‐by‐time interaction was observed between the two groups for dietary iron. Similar results were observed for all other nutrients including absorbable iron. A significant reduction in the prevalence of anemia (68%) and iron‐deficiency anemia (74%) was observed in the intervention group compared to the control group (15 and 44% respectively). A multi‐dietary strategy aiming to improve iron intakes and bioavailability without iron supplementation reduced iron deficiency anemia in these young Beninese adolescent girls.